Sunday, February 24, 2013

Considering it's from '83 this Bad Religion, All Our Yesterdays, bootleg has surprisingly strong sound quality. While the encore of piss-takes of rock n' roll standards is only funny once, the full-on guitar-centered takes on two songs from the long-disavowed keyboard-heavy Into the Unknown LP are are of inestimable historical value. Enjoy, coReligionists!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Clevland's Screaming, a lo-fi, low-light documentary on one local hardcore scene, is the kind of labour-of-love/by-product-of-hate that dozens of North American cities could have produced. Filmmaker/author and zen-punk Brad Warner documents the trials and tribulations of far-from-famous bands like Zero Defects, Starvation Army, Urban Mutants, Offbeats as well as numerous scenesters with great humanity. It's an arresting mix of new interviews and rough archival footage that rips along like the genre it documents.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Hey, please come check out these Ten Amazing Wreckless Eric Videos over at the THE BIG TAKEOVER!

Here's an undated but good-sounding Wreckless Eric (more HERE) solo set. Since it features a reading from his book 2004 autobiography "A Dysfunctional Success", a run-through of his 2002 single "Continuity Girl" and no mention of Amy Rigby we can safely assume this is from the earlier part of the 2000's.
Update: reader, Allan, suggest this is from Bonaventure Social Club 05.04.2006.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

As a North American it can be weird to review the career of Paul Weller. Not only did The Jam, The Style Council and his solo career never break big, even his cult following here never had the sheer obsessiveness of say, a Morrisey or a Robert Smith. While I see Weller is one of the greatest English song-writers of all time (heady company, indeed), I've always felt part of a fairly soft-spoken minority. Now back home in England Weller is revered as "The Modfather", patron saint of every Englishmen with a ringing guitar and a sneering hook. So watching this excellent documentary on the man's career can be both bewildering and faith-affirming - enjoy!

By 1994, Wreckelss Eric (more HERE) had created another short-lived ensemble, oddly
named, the Hitsville House Band. There's no drastic change in the Wreckless one's sound on the group's lone
album, 12:00 Stereo, other than
Eric's delving deeper into American country music. Like his first
producer, Nick Lowe, Eric's work has always been inflected with steely
melodies and emotional nakedness of country song-writing. "Guitar-Shaped
Swimming Pool" (with its tip of the Stetson to Webb Pierce) and
"Friend's on the Floor" (which squashes most Nashville song-writing
beneath it's heel) represent the gut-bucket country aspect of the album.
While raw, primal rock n' country courses through the album's grooves, Eric
hasn't stopped writing pop songs like, "The Girl With the Wandering
Eye", a devastatingly melodic post-mortem on love lost.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Much of The Dropkick Murphys (more HERE) surprising success is attributable to their focus on making giant-sized punk-folk-rock sound work both in arenas/stadiums/diamonds and movie theaters. By bringing the likes of the Bruins and Scorsese to their side, they've been able to prosper in this musician-unfriendly century. Whether you think they're simply formulaic or impressively consistent (as I do) you have to admire their survival skills.

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